Aside from the category guideline expansion details with the arrows as you scroll down below, please read our Submittable reminders shared document HERE before proceeding and then carefully read https://www.dipitylitmag.com/submit. Thanks so much for considering Dipity as a home for your work and please never stop writing or creating no matter what our decision is!
Our remote Help Desk Center can be found here linked below. You can send an email to diptydesk@gmail.com if you have just a general question or hop into our Discord channel from the desktop version on our Help Desk page, not your mobile, but expect slower response times if it notes temporarily closed for other tickets: https://www.dipitylitmag.com/dipity-desk.
Our annual contest has a new name. Please read the guidelines very carefully as a few changes have occurred. See past winners on our site or listen to our first round when it started as an example episode no. 128 with INGEBAR on the Hummingbird Blink Nectar Poetry Spotify podcast or winner announcement episodes such as no. 130 with Jazz Marie and episode no. 137 hosted by Emily Magpie in the example from 2024 above.
WINDOW 1 DEADLINE: DEC 1st-MARCH 1st 2025
Our editor DOES actually share these acceptances with the musicians, artists, or bands too! If the artist is available at the time of the contest closure they will also do an audio read of the winning poem and finalists otherwise our founder will read it. Our editor chooses the finalist group of three but the fave poem is selected by the artist or band themselves if they received more than one inspo poem like in 2023 and 2024. However, the three poems in the finals are from three different artist profiles, then the final decision goes to the editor.
ENTRY TERMS & CONDITIONS
Open to poets of ALL ages and they can be located anywhere in the world. Formerly known as the Symphonic Challenge in 2023, it is now permanently rebooted as our annual dipity. Surf Rock Poetry Prize because our founder just loves lol surfing movies lol aside from rock climbing, crocodile, and shark flicks. Due to recent events we have reduced our contest fees and provided a fee waiver for disabled poets. All $5 entry fees are non-refundable and go towards future community events and our operational expenses. Our reading team will not see your cover letter unless it makes it to the final stage. You can enter as many times as you like in the year before it closes. ALL accepted poems in each window will be published and featured under our Contest or Dipity Lit Mag > Online Tank > Surf Rock [Contest] Tab and become eligible to be part of one of our new upcoming spin-off Dipity Press community print series one day. We may hold up to two rounds in a calendar year if possible or close it early depending upon our submission volume caps.
HOW TO START:
SURF THE 22. Choose any ONE of the 22 artists or groups listed and linked BELOW and write up to THREE NEW poems inspired by just ONE of their song releases—we recommend going out to the links of their profiles below: SoundCloud [Tracks] section YouTube and Spotify, etc. It cannot be a cover song. Again, send up to 3 poems but focus on just ONE artist/ band and ONE song for the overall entry. The poems can be of any length or style (again read our general site sub guidelines under Submit carefully).
PRIZE DEETS
One 1st place winner will be awarded now $100 USD via PayPal within 30-120 days of closure once announced on our podcast show by the artists or band if available at the time of closure, or, the founder of dipity, and will also be announced through our newsletter/channel before the end of the year as some artists have tour events which impact the time of announcements. Our editor will share accepted entries with the artists. Deadline is March 1st, 2025 but subject to be extended based on submission volume. Once an artist reaches 8 poems from different poets they are crossed off for the round. The count will be updated under the Submittable bucket guidelines here below.
All accepted entries get a unique digital collage from our founder and will be placed potentially one day in one of our new upcoming print spin-off series part of Dipity Press and we'll inform you if that's ever done. Entries must be through Submittable only. We tend to use SoundCloud on our website, however not all artists are on there but that’s ok you can go out to Spotify, YouTube, etc. We have their profiles linked below. The artist selections can close now in the year once an artist/ bands has a max of 8 writers select them for this to make it as fair as possible or once our caps are hit—so be sure to read the Dipity Lit Mag > Surf Rock [Contest[ online tank section and bottom of each poem to see which artists have inspo pieces thus far. We will be cycling through all supportive artists and past issues but predominantly from our online community Q&As. Be sure to follow them and subscribe to their channels to stay in the loop on their releases too! We will carefully look at how you gained inspiration from the lyrics or song's vibe overall. READY SET, SURF!
dipity.'s 2025 Surf Rock Poetry Prize Artist & Band List
1. Saint Gardenia [OPEN] 0 of 8
- https://www.youtube.com/@saintgardenia/videos
- https://soundcloud.com/saintgardenia
- https://open.spotify.com/artist/08aIHAz9znmhSLwOuZOhqt
2. Isla Rose [OPEN] 0 of 8
3. NoxTros [OPEN] 0 of 8
4. ECHOS [OPEN] 0 of 8
5. Kiiōtō [OPEN] 0 of 8
6. EDDA [OPEN] 0 of 8
7. Boy Okay [OPEN] 0 of 8
8. CELIA [OPEN] 0 of 8
9. MUX [OPEN] 0 of 8
10. Some Days Are Darker [OPEN] 0 of 8
11. 92elm [OPEN] 0 of 8
12. Kylo [OPEN] 0 of 8
- https://open.spotify.com/artist/4H8gvWMKDnkJeqeuRtOqQj
- https://www.youtube.com/@kylomusic4987/videos
14. MYRY [OPEN] 0 of 8
15. Fever Blue [OPEN] 0 of 8
16. Marley Angel [OPEN] 0 of 8
17. BLOCKED [OPEN] 0 of 8
18. Fire Beninois [OPEN] 0 of 8
19. In the Middle [OPEN] 0 of 8
20. fkblnde [OPEN] 0 of 8
21. Josh Pozzi [OPEN] 0 of 8
22. Jahrund [OPEN] 0 of 8
A NEW SERIES we're kickstarting in 2025. Multiple micro-chapbook submission entries are permitted in each window. Your micro-chapbook(s) must be themed or have a distinct singular focus e.g. flower species, birds, movies, love, heartbreak, queer love, food, grief, environmental impact, horror, or sci-fi. Please leave your name off of the document file name and DO NOT include it inside the document anywhere.
Each micro-chapbook submission must contain ONLY 11 poems and include a title page, author page 5-8 sentences in third person (only after acceptance) leave it blank with BIO PAGE HERE, a description, and table of contents, an acknowledgments page; in a Word.doc. We'll resize the font and style so no worries, but ensure we can read the font e.g. Times New Roman. Please only put your cover letter and chapbook description(s) in the Submittable form box (it is concealed from our reading team levels).
REMINDER NO previously published poems (we want to see completely new poems). All poems must be titled, Read our Submit FAQ page too. Each poem should fit on one page.
We DO NOT accept Ai generated writing.
REMEMBER that our chapbooks will not be 8.5 x 11 and closer to approximately an A5 (5.2 x 7.8) saddle stitch booklet so your poems must fit this much smaller A5 page size therefore within or way under 30 lines single-spaced including line breaks would be ideal. ONE page per poem (do not carry a poem over to the next page).
While you can submit your poems on an 8.5 x 11 Word.doc, chapbook submissions that consist of poetry that fits the size limitations will only be considered. We will choose the font style and standard size for it so no worries there.
All submission processing and reading fees are non-refundable. We do have fees waived on the micro-chapbook series for disabled writers--please choose the appropriate checkbox for this. If you make a submission mistake we can open it for editing just message us through Submittable.
EXAMPLE LAYOUT REQUIREMENTS [Note For Micro-Chapbooks The Intro Pages 1-5 May Be Condensed]
Page 1. [Chapbook no. Page For Us ]
Page 2. Title Page - Title Only [Do NOT Include Your Name]
Page 3. Description of Chapbook Here [Leave Blank]
Page 4. Author About Page - Third Person [Leave Blank We'll Ask for this After or You Should Input it in Your Submittable Cover Letter Form Section Instead ] Followed by Your Chapbook Title(s) or About Collection Description(s)
Page 5 leave blank - dipity press + author copyright pages
Page 6. Acknowledgments or Dedications Page
Page 7. Table of Contents
Pages 8 - 19 [ For 11 Poems]
Page 20 - Leave Blank For Us OR You're welcome to create a playlist of 11 songs on this page (meaning pair one song to each poem in order of appearance that you feel represents the vibe of that poem).
We will choose one or more micro-chapbook manuscripts for each open window. The winner(s) for these will receive:
- 5 micro-chapbook print copies at a minimum and publication as payment instead within approximately a year. Acceptance decisions are within about 3-6 months after your submission or ASAP. We CANNOT provide cash award amounts at this time for our chapbooks but may in the future if enough submission interest is generated or seen for dipity. press's existence may be able to. Royalties nowadays are quite tough to maintain for small presses therefore we believe a donation-based page to support each accepted poet's chapbook would be better suited along with other forms of payment e.g. physical copies as payment. As time goes on, dipity. press may be able to facilitate cash prizes and bump up the number of physical print copies.
- You'll receive a U.S. print link on our site (no international shipping at this time for our micro-chapbooks series to the public), but if you're located in outside of the U.S. we will ship you 5 copies and the micro-chapbook can be purchased via download in our Shack section as it'll become part of our digital series.
- You retain 100% rights to your work and can include these poems in new or future publications and all that we ask is that you acknowledge dipity. press as the first publication appearance (optional but preferred) followed by the year.
- You will receive a signage agreement over these terms if selected.
- Those selected will get a direct donate button for your chapbook on our website under a new Shortys page similar to Chappies [ we are creating a new donate to poet chapbook page space to direct traffic towards to support poets' further long-term]. Readers and visitors of the Dipity Press micro-chapbooks series will be able to donate to you. They can also grab digital downloads of just our micro-series in our Shack as it will be predominantly digitally read by others.
- This is open to poets of all ages and international and we are not accepting translations at this time. We do not integrate art into the interior in all micro-chapbooks at this time.
- All sub fees and purchases of your chapbook go towards helping maintain dipity, supporting artists, fund contests, and future literary arts community publication projects or initiatives such as saving towards paying writers, promoting work, website maintenance fees, and our operation expenses since we do not have any significant funding or support at this time.
- Each accepted micro-chapbook will receive a cover design by an artist or staff which will be either photography collage-based or illustrative. We will pick your cover art.
- Selected chapbooks receive promotion through the shared dipitylitmag and press social media channels such as Threads etc. and our Substack. You're welcome to share through our podcast too if you let us know (optional).
The dipity. press micro-chapbook subs will be judged by Jazz Marie (VFORROW) and volunteer staff readers will aid in eliminating any micro-chapbooks that do not comply with guidelines or are not what we were looking for etc.
We may close this window early in the event of reaching caps or an extremely high submission volume OR may extend it if there are not enough subs in each window. Thank you so much in advance for considering us as a home for your work!
We welcome publication and interview Q&A first-person publication features through our Substack subscribers.
You must answer ALL of the following questions in order to be potentially considered and featured on dipity's Substack. A few sentences within 5-8 will suffice for the Q&A. We like to include some fun questions.
- What is your pen name or author name?
- Where are you located in the world?
- Submit ONE unpublished poem OR just ONE short story 1-2.5 pages for consideration. Do not submit both. We want to see previously unpublished poems, but you may share only a previously published short or flash fiction piece letting us know where else it appeared. Please only share as much as you're comfortable with publicly sharing through our Substack newsletter if accepted. Poems should be left-aligned.
- Submit the backstory of that poem or short story within at least within 5-8 sentences.
- When did you begin writing? or What or who sparked and inspired your writing journey? 5-8 sentences
- Where can others find more of your work or what are some of your fave publications - please provide at least a few links? Max of 3-4.
- What advice would you give aspiring poets, authors, or fellow writers in the community?
- What else do you do outside of the writing or poetry community? or What else are you working on or excited about in the future? Any fun hobbies?
- What are you currently reading? OR What book would you recommend to others right now? - it doesn't have to be poetry or a collection....
- What was the last movie or TV show you watched or recommend others see in the community?
- What was your most recent publication or most recent publications 3-4 max?
- Which poets, artists, or writers inspire you? OR choose What are some of your fave Substacks?
- ANSWER JUST ONE OF THE FOLLOWING (a-d):
a. If you were stuck on the moon with anyone or could pick your space flight partner who would it be — it could be someone from the past or present time?
b. If you had the opportunity to portray any book character in the world and star in a movie adaptation of their life's story or another in a film who would you choose? Please share the character name, book title, and author of the book.
c. What's your favorite memory, event, or moment as a writer, author, or artist thus far? WHY?
d. If you could get a lifetime supply of any snack or one food dish in the world what would it be? WHY?
14. What's one of your favorite poems in existence? Provide 1 poem by another poet just the title and author name.
15. What is your website or share any social media handles? Do you have a Substack URL?
We will pair one or a few songs at the bottom of the spotlight. Feel free to give link suggestions or names from YouTube. No guarantees we'll use your song preferences.
Notes: We will also accept audio reads on our podcasts so you're welcome to submit your poem to our Hummingbird Blink podcast if it's accepted and choose the (I will be reading a poem I had published through Dipity Lit Mag option). We may need to adjust your formatting if it's accepted {preferably left align your poem} otherwise all other formatting may require us to screenshot it due to the finicky mobile reading view. We will always retain the original formatting if it is ever placed in one of our print series one day.